Explore Bergen

KODE is Bergen's museum of art, design and music, formed in 2007 from the city's art museum, its decorative arts museum and the composer homes. Its four buildings line Lille Lungegårdsvann: Rasmus Meyer shows Norwegian painting from J.C. Dahl to the 1920s and a large Edvard Munch collection, while Permanenten, Lysverket and Stenersen hold changing exhibitions.

The Fish Market lies at the head of Vågen harbour in central Bergen. A fish market is recorded in the city law of 1276 and was later moved to this site from the Bryggen side of the bay. Outdoor stalls selling fish, shellfish and other local food stand on the square in the summer season, and the Mathallen food hall beside it is open all year.

The Hanseatic Museum and Schøtstuene tells the story of the German merchants who ran the Hanseatic trading office at Bryggen for four centuries. The museum, founded in 1872, has its main building, Finnegården, under restoration, so it now shows the Schøtstuene, the assembly rooms where merchants cooked, ate and met in winter, with guided tours.

Bergen Cathedral is the seat of the Church of Norway's Diocese of Bjørgvin and keeps its medieval dedication to Saint Olaf; the church is first recorded in 1181. Franciscan friars took it over in the 13th century, and in 1537 it became the cathedral. A cannonball from the 1665 Battle of Vågen is still lodged in the outer wall of its tower.

Grieg Hall is Bergen's main concert hall, named after composer Edvard Grieg and home of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Designed by the Danish architect Knud Munk and completed in 1978, it has a main auditorium for about 1,500 people and hosts concerts, opera, ballet and the Bergen International Festival; it staged the Eurovision Song Contest in 1986.

Fløibanen is a funicular that has run from the centre of Bergen up the mountain Fløyen since 1918, climbing 302 metres along a line 848 metres long. Its two cars, the blue Blåmann and the red Rødhette, have glass roofs and large windows. At the top a viewing platform looks over the city and the harbour, with a restaurant and marked walking trails nearby.

The University Museum of Bergen was founded in 1825 by Wilhelm Frimann Koren Christie as Bergen Museum and later formed the basis of the University of Bergen. Its 19th-century natural history building on Muséplass shows a hall of whale skeletons and exhibitions on the deep sea and geology; the cultural history building nearby is being renovated.

Bryggen is the row of wooden merchant houses along Bergen's Vågen harbour, where the Hanseatic League kept a trading office, the Kontor, from about 1350. Most of today's gabled buildings were rebuilt after the fire of 1702, and narrow wooden passages lead between them to courtyards with shops, workshops and restaurants. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

Bryggens Museum stands at the north end of Bryggen and opened in 1976 to show the finds from the archaeological excavations that followed the Bryggen fire of 1955. Among the remains of medieval buildings it displays shoes, pottery, tools and a large collection of runic inscriptions from everyday life in medieval Bergen, alongside changing exhibitions.

St Mary's Church is the oldest surviving building in Bergen, a two-towered Romanesque church of soapstone begun around 1130–1140 and finished around 1180. From 1408 it belonged to the German Hanseatic merchants of Bryggen, which spared it from becoming a ruin and kept its rich furnishings. It reopened in 2015 after a five-year restoration.

Bergenhus Fortress stands at the entrance to Bergen's harbour on Holmen, the site of the medieval royal residence, first walled in the 1240s when Bergen was Norway's capital. Its two medieval buildings are Haakon's Hall, a stone hall built for King Haakon Haakonsson between 1247 and 1261, and the Rosenkrantz Tower, where steep stairs lead from a dungeon to the roof walkway.

Bergen Aquarium opened in 1960 at the tip of the Nordnes peninsula, in buildings designed by Hans Chr. Gaaserud and Helge Simers. It keeps more than 300 species in over 60 tanks of fish and marine invertebrates, outdoor pools with seals and penguins, and a tropical section with reptiles. Visitors can watch the animals being fed and see a film in its cinema.

Ulriksbanen is the aerial cable car from Haukeland up Mount Ulriken, at 643 metres the highest of the mountains around Bergen. It opened in 1961 and reopened in 2021 with a new cabin for 50 passengers; at the top are a café, the Skyskraperen restaurant, a view over the city and the coast, and hiking trails across the Vidden plateau.

Troldhaugen is the villa that composer Edvard Grieg and his wife Nina built in 1885 above Nordåsvannet, south of central Bergen, and where they spent their summers until his death in 1907. The grounds hold Grieg's composer's hut, the couple's tomb in the rock face, a museum building with a café and Troldsalen, a chamber concert hall for 200 listeners. The villa itself is closed for restoration until spring 2027.